REPORT ON THE BOTANY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLANDS. J 25 



the highest points. Indeed, nearly all the trees were overturned, and had the appearance 

 of having been in that position for many years. Dr Copeland asks whether, as in St Helena, 

 the trees were not destroyed by goats. It may be so ; but neither he nor any one from 

 the ship saw a single goat, hog, or cat ; yet dense vegetation was encountered in easily 

 accessible localities. In 1803 the American Commodore Amaco Delano visited the island, 

 and found, it is recorded, numerous goats and hogs, as well as cats. Sir James Ross's 

 party saw one goat only in 1839, and left two hens and a cock ; but they do not seem to 

 have multiplied, for Dr Copeland saw fowl of no kind. 



The wood of the fallen trees is said to resemble mahogany, though of less density. 



At an altitude of about 1800 feet, the valley suddenly widens into a kind of plateau, 

 covered for the greater part with a dense thicket of a matted grass [sedge ?]. This grass 

 is borne on tough stems one or two inches high, so that the heavy rains that doubtless 

 fall easily run off beneath it. 



Contiguous to a small watercourse was a group of tree-ferns, many of them dead, how- 

 ever, though their snake-like trunks were still standing upright ; and at some two or three 

 hundred feet higher the vegetation was found to be of quite a different character. Large 

 spaces of ground were clothed with luxuriant ferns, each kind growing in separate patches. 

 These ferns were : Polypodium lepidoptcris, Asplenium prcemorsum, and Asplenium 

 compression. The last was less plentiful than the others, but it is the most interesting, 

 inasmuch as it had previously only been found in St Helena. Intermixed with the ferns 

 were clumps of a small shrubby Composite plant (Achyrocline disjuncta), 1 covered with 

 yellowish-white flower-heads. The summit above, as well as the southwestern slope, was 

 covered with forest, the outskirts of which were very dense, consisting of stunted, almost 

 impenetrable bushes. Looking down into the principal western valley, in which there is a 

 waterfall, a pretty sight met the eye. The valley was nearly filled with tree-ferns, which, 

 seen from above, showed each about eight fronds ; and as the trees were all of the same 

 size, with their fronds just meeting each other, the whole formed the most beautiful carpet 

 imaginable. Near the summit a few tree-ferns were associated with the trees forming the 

 bulk of the forest ; their trunks were about a foot in girth and from eight to fourteen 

 feet high. 



An imperfect specimen of a tree-fern was brought home from here, and it has been 

 described as a new species of Cyaihea, namely, Cyathea copelandi. 



Unfortunately Dr Copeland brought away only very fragmentary specimens of a few 

 plants, as night overtook him almost before he could descend to the coast. One thing 

 seems tolerably clear, and that is, the vegetation, luxuriant and abundant though it is in 

 some parts, presents the common characteristics of insular floras, being composed of com- 

 paratively few species. 



1 Referred to as Achyrocline capitata in Dr Copeland's sketch, from which, however, it is quite distinct, 

 though it resembles that species in general appearance. 



